The factory had no name, and the managers had no informal nickname passed down, so it only had a code name, called "3204-β".
Twenty years ago, in 2032, some top engineers were gathered by the country. When they heard that an unmanned factory was to be built, they were all shocked and delighted.
They were shocked that those technologies, which should not have existed, actually existed; and they were delighted that they would have the opportunity to learn those technologies and make them truly the hard power of the motherland. That sense of pride and participation eventually turned into joy.
They quickly had a detailed discussion and subsequently determined a general direction for the location of the factory:
First, the factory must be built in a geologically stable location, yet not too far from it. Therefore, it must be near multiple mineral production areas. This consideration is about resource availability. While earthquakes bring danger, they bring more resources. After all, cities thrive on earthquakes, and the vast majority of major cities today are located in seismic zones.
Secondly, factories require sufficient workers, but they can't afford to settle nearby, so they must be located near a city. This consideration is crucial for product distribution. Because any industry should serve people, a factory that doesn't create jobs shouldn't consume too many social resources. Therefore, it should be a form of public welfare, and appropriately improving its cost-effectiveness is reasonable.
Third, due to confidentiality concerns, it had to be built underground. And underground doesn't just mean anywhere; it had to be close to a water source but not be eroded by groundwater.
Fourth...
They drafted a plan and quickly eliminated most of the inappropriate sites. Of course, thanks to the vast land and abundant resources of Country Z, the number of sites still exceeded the demand until the end.
So, this underground factory became the luckier one.
They spent three years excavating several huge spaces. The excess earth and stone materials were handed over to the state for precise coordination and then diluted into nothingness by the huge logistics system.
They then spent another three years putting the factory's components into place, piece by piece. During this process, the world's changing dynamics remained largely unaffected. During this time, the components underwent several technological iterations, but the engineers still chose the original set.
After that, they began to gradually evacuate the people working here and began to test the operating effectiveness of these factories.
Since then, the factory has never stopped.
The factory's products are primarily drones, but there are also some multifunctional production lines that can produce other things. Countless ores and waste materials are transported back by the factory's robots and then transformed into their unnatural forms through complex processes.
Even the managers don't know how much they actually produce. Judging from the data on paper alone, Country Z's national industrial output peaked in 2046. By then, all other countries combined wouldn't have produced even a fraction of it.
And this year, World War III ended.
It was also in this year that Country Z liberated Nanzhou (formerly Kangaroo Country).
This should have been a perfect ending, but reality is not a game, there is no so-called end.
A few years later, when the world began to recover, another accident struck. This time, there was no sign of human activity in these unmanned factories.
Unmanned factories have been operating for much longer than people imagine. They have expanded recklessly beneath cities, creating one enormous space after another.
Now, there are new changes.
Production log, year 14, day 79, 4 hours, 31 minutes, 55 seconds, 51 milliseconds: Warning, unknown employee detected, waiting for administrator instructions. . . . .
Production log, year 14, day 79, 4 hours, 31 minutes, 55 seconds, 53 milliseconds: Received administrator's instruction, warning lifted, job changed - observation.
Production log, year 14, day 79, 4 hours, 37 minutes, 21 seconds, 04 milliseconds: Voiceprint signal collected, database comparison in progress. . . . .
Target's identity confirmed - Long Meier, who lied about his age in 2044 to join the Z Country Army. In April 2046, he was awarded special merit and promoted to the rank of sergeant. Target's status: Missing. The following is a voice transcript:
"Wow~ There's such a big factory in this damn place!"
Production log, year 14, day 79, 4 hours, 37 minutes, 28 seconds, 33 milliseconds: Voiceprint signal collected, database comparison in progress.
Target's identity confirmed - He Kong, admitted to the Chemistry Department of Fudan University in 2049. Target's status: Missing. The following is a voice transcript:
"This...isn't this the automated factory the Terrorism Bureau always brags about? It actually exists!"
Production log at 14th year, 79th day, 10th hour, 45th minute, 42th second, 01st millisecond: Warning: Illegal intrusion detected, CCTV signal being acquired:
In the darkness, two blurry figures hid on either side of a blast-proof door. One of them fiddled with the lock twice, and then an explosion occurred on the blast-proof door, completely destroying the lock. The two figures filed in.
Production log, year 14, day 79, 10 hours, 46 minutes, 2 seconds, 5 milliseconds: Received instructions from administrator, warning lifted, added work content - repair B072 protective door.
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